Teenagers step aside for the Porsche on Maple Lane
where there was a trail the white-tailed deer
followed at dusk and early morning
going down moraine to vernal pond
Split levels there are flooded every spring
Saturday morning
the young executive on Oak Lane
lets loose the BRRRRRR of electric lawnmower
He pushes it over a knoll
where in May wild orchids grew
Lady’s Slippers with pink balloons of flowers
In the town’s new Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School
the sixth grader with red hair tells his teacher
“Screech Owls nested in the woods in back of our house
and I loved to hear them at night.
They didn’t screech.
Their notes were round.”
The teacher observes how wonderfully the child uses words.
“Now they’re gone,” she says.
“We’re all houses.”